Osprey Orielle Lake

Monday, , 2010 || September 13, 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Osprey Orielle Lake is a lifelong advocate of social and environmental justice issues. She has traveled to five continents studying ancient and modern cultures while making presentations at international conferences and universities. is the Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus and on the governing Board of Praxis Peace Institute. Osprey She is the Founder/Artist of the International Cheemah Monument Project and is creating eighteen-foot-tall bronze sculpture monuments for permanent display in cities around the world. Three are placed in Germany, Spain and the United States and are now places to ponder a better future for the earth and humanity. With a unique perspective as a renowned international sculptor and public speaker for environmental issues, Lake has been featured on national and European television.

Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature delves into a new kinship with nature while acknowledging the treasures of urban life and the unique stake each person has in resolving critical and timely challenges. It offers a frank inquiry into the causes leading to the current global peril while also providing a deep well of hope and insight. Whether you are an agent for social, environmental or political change, newly awakened to environmental threats, or a lover of natural history and literature, consider this book required reading for its inspiration, innovation and hope for the Earth and future generations.

Todd Crawshaw

Saturday, September 11, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Todd Crawshaw talks about his debut novel Exploits of the Satyr.

John Lazard Slater III, known simply as John, or Slater (or Satyr to his fans and foes, once upon a time), crash-lands after falling from the sky onto a freeway overpass. Thus ends—and begins—a biographical story about mental, physical and spiritual seduction, the tragi-comic chronicle of a man who belatedly discovers he was procreated by members of a cult to initiate the Second Coming of Christ. The result: a fast-forward-reverse-pause world where the past and the future intermingle with present consciousness. This is a cautionary tale about Artificial Intelligence (AI technology), a spiritual journey, and a love story.

Todd Crawshaw has been writing fiction for 39 years. He attended the University of Oregon, studying at the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, where he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. Exploits of the Satyr is the fourth in a line of five (and now approaching six) novels he has written, along with a collection of stories and poems (completed/abandoned) … and a few screenplays too.

In 1975, he established a graphic design studio, Crawshaw Design. This San Francisco venture has changed and evolved over the years, significantly with the advent of computers and their global proliferation. He provides integrated brand marketing for print and the web, having developed more than 200 corporate identity programs for major corporations and individual proprietorships. It’s an interesting business. Check it out: www.crawshawdesign.com.

Molly Dwyer

Tuesday, September 7, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Frankenstein was conceived during the summer of 1816 when Mary Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley lived on Lake Geneva in the company of the infamous Lord Byron. Frankenstein matured into a novel during the following winter, while Mary lived mostly without Shelley in Bath, keeping her pregnant stepsister Claire hidden from wagging tongues. During that winter both Mary’s half-sister, Fanny, and Shelley’s abandoned wife, Harriet, killed themselves. On January 1, 1818, one year later, Frankenstein descended upon the world. Its author, now the married Mrs. Shelley, was twenty years old.

Mary Shelley once said, “If philosophical novels were in fashion, we conceive an excellent one might be written on the development of the same mind in various stations, in different periods of the world’s history.” Anna Trevor, a young American woman has the kind of consciousness Mary Shelley must have foreseen. During waking hours Anna is preparing a controversial paper on Frankenstein, but when she sleeps, she falls into alarmingly realistic dreams of Mary Shelley’s life. In England, where Anna has come to present her paper, coincidence and synchronicity abound. As she experiences more and more of their world, Anna begins to believe that Mary Shelley and her legendary lovers, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, exist as consciously creative beings sharing time and space—and mind—with her.

Is this a ghost story? A historical fiction? A tale of mystical encounters in a state of consciousness where all time is present time? Requiem offers an impeccably researched portrait of the brilliance and daring of the author of Frankenstein. It is a tribute, a “philosophical novel” that seeks to embrace the zeitgeist of Mary Shelley’s day, a symbolic recovery of the creative genius of the feminine. Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein is literary fiction that, like its namesake, rides the thin edge between the rational and the irrational, transporting its readers into the 19th century world of Britain’s famed Romantics.

An educator for many years, Molly Dwyer traveled to England, Italy, Switzerland, and France researching Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein. Her novel emerged out of the land, the architecture, and the artifacts of the past.

She has taught English composition, literature, and creative writing in community colleges and tutored and facilitated workshops across a range of disciplines.

Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein is the first book in a literary quartet, La Belle Quartet, about the Romantic Movement. The 2nd book is The Appassionata, set in 19th century Paris. The 3rd is Sans Merci, set among the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of England. The 4th book, Point of Deparutre, follows Romaniticism into the counterculture of the Sixties in San Francisco.

Saturday, August 21, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Pearls My Mother Wore is about loss and recovery, resentment and forgiveness.

The novel opens on the day that forty-three-year-old “nice girl” Kelly Tremblake buries the ashes of her forty-two-year-old husband, Grayson. Devastated by his sudden and unexpected death, Kelly finds the sweet, uncomplicated life she has intentionally crafted screeching to a halt.  As she pulls increasingly inward, episodes surrounding the death of her beautiful but narcissistic, alcoholic mother, when Kelly was fifteen, threaten to overwhelm her.

Compounding the agony of her loss and the flood of memories is the unexpected arrival of Grayson’s twenty-three-year-old “bad-boy” nephew, Mitchell, the young man who, years earlier, stole a pearl necklace and earring set that had belonged to Kelly’s deceased mother. This combination of events throws Kelly into a spiral of grief, bitter resentment, paranoia,  and despair.  For her to find relief, she must get those pearls back.

Terry Sue Harms has been a practicing hairdresser since 1977 and currently owns her salon.  In 1992 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Mills College.  In May of 2005, she was inspired, in response to the new reality TV craze, “to write a story where the losers were the winners.”  Pearls My Mother Wore was born of that inspiration.  Terry lives in Northern California with her husband, Lutrell.

Christi Phillips

Monday, August 9, 2010 || 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us for a little wine and a magical evening with popular Bay Area author Christi Phillips. Christi’s latest book, The Devlin Diary, now out in paperback, is a dazzling novel of intrigue, passion, and royal secrets that shifts tantalizingly between Restoration-era London and present-day Cambridge. A suspenseful and richly satisfying tale brimming with sharply observed historical detail, The Devlin Diary brings past and present to vivid life. With wit and grace, Christi Phillips holds readers spellbound with an extraordinary novel of secrets, obsession, and the haunting power of the past.

Christi Phillips is the author of The Devlin Diary and The Rossetti Letter, which is being translated into eight languages including Russian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Her research combines a few of her favorite things: old books, libraries, and travel. When she’s not rummaging around in an archive or exploring the historic heart of a European city, she lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is at work on her next novel, set in France.

Michael Krasny

Monday, August 2, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Everyone knows Michael Krasny, the award-winning host of NPR/KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny, a news and public affairs program covering politics, culture, the arts, health, business and technology since 1993 and veteran interviewer for NPR’s nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures series. He’s also an English professor at San Francisco State University, and a widely published scholar, critic and fiction writer. We are so pleased to have him as a Left Coast Writers Literary Salon Presenter in August.

We are especially interested in listening to  Michael’s views of the literary life. He’s the author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life. His new book, Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest, is a conversation about morality, eternal life, why we do good, and why evil sometimes triumphs.

Michael always does such an amazing job of interviewing writers. We’re thrilled to be hearing more about him.

Bring the kiddies. Please join us for a delightful night of wine and juice and great readers as Left Coast Writer’s Simplie Indie publisher, Bill Walker, takes the stage with two of his authors.

Connie A. Walker always planned on being a writer when she grew up. When she was seven years old, she won her first writing contest with a short story called “Stop, Look, and Listen.” It was about a dog who acted as a crossing-guard, which is an example of her early interest in fantasy. She attended the University of Utah and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and a Master’s degree in social work. She has been a foster care caseworker, a psychotherapist, and a clinical programs manager. Her children’s book, Timmy and the K’nick K’nocker Ring, is a fantasy about a young boy who is transported to a world where his special talents are considered magic.

The Spire of Kylet, a young adult fantasy, is the first book in The Wolkarean Inscription Trilogy. Katrine is a fifteen year old girl who thinks she has her life all planned out, but discovers fate has something different in mind for her. The second and third books in the trilogy, The Eyes of Landor and Triumph at Serpent’s Head, will be available in 2011. Connie is currently working on a second Wolkarean trilogy.

David R. Christensen first pictured himself as an author when, for a class in college, the assignment was to select ten topics from a list of about fifty and write a paragraph about each. He chose to weave more than a dozen of these topics into a short story. While pursuing a career as an engineer, he developed ideas suitable for children’s books. One of his first ideas evolved into his first book, Tivoli’s Christmas, published in 2008.

His next idea developed into, The Mystery of the Grinning Buddha, the first in a series entitled The Millerville Mysteries, which was published in 2009. This mystery series is geared to the 8 to 12 year olds. The Mystery of the Ugly Bottle was published in 2010. Shortly after a devastated hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, Jeremy’s father is reported missing. A few days later a package appears on the porch of the Miller Bungalow.  In the package is a bottle which contains notes from Father to the members of the Miller family. The contents of the notes make it apparent that the boat Father is on may sink at any time. The third book in the series, The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse, is in work.

Now that my novel, Pearls My Mother Wore, is on the market, I’m satisfied that self-publishing was the right path for me to take. Four years ago, though, when I started writing the book, I felt certain that I’d go the traditional route.  Although I didn’t think too much about a publisher as I toiled over my manuscript,  I’d occasionally drift into a fantasy of being taken under the wing of one of the venerated publishing houses.  I imagined the acknowledgement page in my beautiful, hardbound book where I would thank a team of folks who had worked tirelessly to shepherd my novel into the world.  Together we would have tackled all of the behind-the-scenes aspects of literary success: contracts, manufacturing, marketing, placement, touring, reviews, awards, etc.  I would be taken care of.  I would be part of a team.

When my novel was completed and well-polished, I sent the first chapter to my number-one pick for a literary agent.  The agent requested the full manuscript, and I was elated. A few weeks later I got the call. “Congratulations, you’ve written a really good novel.  I’ve got to go to New York, but when I get back we’ll get together to discuss how to present it to publishers.”  I was over the moon. I’d been taken on by the agent of my choice, first time out. I was golden!

Two weeks later, I got an e-mail taking it all back.  I don’t know what happened in New York, but the e-mail basically said that times had never been harder to sell fiction, and my work wasn’t good enough to try.  That was tough, especially after bragging to all of my friends that I’d reached this amazing milestone.

I took a few weeks to consider my next move.  During that time I was soothed by a number of woeful tales about agents and publishers that made my experience pale by comparison.  The establishment wasn’t looking so great.  Writers seemed to get dozens of rejection letters, if they were lucky.  A more common experience was to be totally ignored.  I was cautioned about contractual traps that could leave me empty-handed.  Even if I made it in, I was told not to expect any concentrated editing efforts.  I wouldn’t be allowed to design the book cover.  I couldn’t set the price.  I wouldn’t be able to control the release date.  I would have to create and fund my own book tour.  Marketing Platforms, I get it about marketing platforms, but the hustle/reward ratio seemed heavily slanted in the publishing house’s favor.  I do most of the work, agent and publisher collect most of the profit.  At least this is how I heard it in casual conversations.

All of this presented me with a heart-sinking dilemma — continue to pursue other agents in the hopes that they could find me a publisher, or go it alone, self-publish.

My 180 came when I acknowledged that everything about the writing phase had been fun.  I had enjoyed the classes I took, the people I met, and the deep emotional places to which my story had carried me.  Writing had enriched my life and was incredibly rewarding.  So why, I asked myself, would I want to subject my positive writing experience to the ego bruising ordeal of traditional publishing?  The answer was, I wouldn’t, and I didn’t have to.  Self-publishing had come a long way during the years I’d been writing and perfecting my novel, and it was absolutely a viable option.

I did a little more work on the manuscript and hired an editor to make sure it was as clean as it could be. My husband and I designed the cover art, I worked with a book designer to put everything together in the most professional looking layout, and off it went to Lulu.com for self-publishing.  It was the perfect solution.

Lulu didn’t require any up-front money, and in some ways, you get what you pay for.  The customer service was seriously lacking.  When problems loading my PDF arose, it was like writing to an ATM and asking for tens instead of twenties.  My help e-mails were answered with pre-made, generic solutions that didn’t apply.  The fix required several re-downloads, several test-copy orders, and several agonizing weeks.  My other complaint is that the paper stock for the cover is pretty flimsy, although the glue binding seems to be holding up well.  If I had to do it again, I would try another self-publishing company. Live and learn.

Nevertheless, self-publishing has allowed me to hold my book and to share it with others.  I continue to have great enthusiasm for my characters and my plot, and I have plenty of energy to do my own promoting.  I get to do that in my own way, on my own time. I don’t have to worry about answering for any quotas, and as a print-on-demand operation, I’m not haunted by thousands of unsold books.

I don’t actually know what working with a traditional publisher would be like. I guess I gave up before even trying, a case of “contempt prior to investigation.”  Nevertheless, I’m holding out hope that sales of Pearls My Mother Wore become so impressive that some publisher does a 180 and comes courting me.

Terry Sue Harms received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Mills College.  In May of 2005, she was inspired, in response to the new reality TV craze, “to write a story where the losers were the winners.”  Pearls My Mother Wore was born of that inspiration.  Her Left Coast Writers Book Launch will be on August 21 at Book Passage, Corte Madera.  Meantime look for Pearls My Mother Wore on Facebook, or visit her website at www.pearlsmymotherwore.com.

Ransom Stephens

Monday, July 5, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., is a professor of particle physics turned writer and speaker. He has worked on experiments at SLAC, Fermilab, CERN, and Cornell; discovered a new type of matter and was on the team that discovered the top quark. During the tech boom that ended in 2001, he directed patent development for a wireless web startup and, a few years later, became an expert on timing noise. Now he’s turning his considerable mental powers toward the world of writing and publishing, and we’re interested in what he’s learned. He’s a much praised speaker, so it should be an informative evening as Ransom shares his current explorations and his jump into a bold new way of getting the word out.

“What distinguishes this classic battle between faith and free will is its unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science.…an ambitious first novel that uses Stephens’ experience as a particle physicist, director of patents, public speaker and single father in a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song.”

—The San Francisco Chronicle

“Ransom Stephens skillfully weaves together multiple plot lines and characters in a fast moving story.”

—Book Case, for the Petaluma Argus-Courier

The memo said they’d get bonuses for submitting patents, so why not? Money came easily during the dot-com boom. Concealed in engineering jargon, Ryan McNear submits a patent for the soul disguised as a software algorithm and his best friend Foster Reed rewrites Genesis and calls it a “power generator.” A few years later, amid the fallout of a ruptured technology bubble, his career ruined and family shredded, a desperate Ryan discovers that a company headed by his old friend Foster is developing his patent. What he thought was a joke is generating stacks of money amid claims that it will provide a source of limitless energy and prove the existence of God.Willing to try anything to rebuild his life, Ryan stakes a legal claim to the patent but soon discovers a sinister undercurrent in the venture. Racing against time and aided by a motley group of assistants that includes an attorney/conman, a beautiful and passionate physicist and a death-obsessed adolescent math prodigy, Ryan gets caught in a battle between hard science and fundamentalist religion that threatens his sanity, his freedom and his son. Before long Ryan will test the limits of faith and free will, evaluate the nature of desire, and comprehend the human soul in a way that requires a single step, rather than a great leap, of faith.

…….

Ransom lives in Petaluma, California and makes a living by writing novels, giving speeches, producing and MCing literary events, helping engineers solve problems, and teaching writing seminars. He is the author of over 200 articles on impossible subjects like quantum physics, the future of publishing and parenting teenagers. His first novel, The God Patent, is set in the battle between science and religion over the nature of the soul and the origin of the universe.

James J. Patterson

Joanna Biggar

Monday, July 12, 2010 || 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us for an evening that will take you from the good old USA to Paris, France, as ASP writer and publisher, James J. Patterson, and noted writer and teacher, Joanna Biggar, team up for an evening of all-American chatter and fine French bonhomie. North Beach dive? French cafe? Try the wine and fancy cheese, and you tell us.

Political satirist, musician, songwriter, dramatist, essayist, and novelist, James J. Patterson, will read from his new collection of essays, Bermuda Shorts. In this volume Patterson meanders delightfully, ominously, frightfully, hilariously through his life and times, touching down at specific moments in the nation’s history as well as his own, as seen from the back alleys, barrooms and his hidden sanctum in what he calls The Capital of the Empire, Washington, DC. More than just a garment, Bermuda Shorts, according to Patterson, is a state of mind.

Then, allow yourself to be carried away to Paris by Joanna Biggar.

Who has not dreamed of escaping to Paris? When wildfire ravished the landscape of Los Angeles, five young co-eds, house-mates in the rundown Maison Française, found the freedom to pursue that dream. They set sail on a rusty boat in the summer of 1962 determined to enroll in the Sorbonne. It was as if Mary McCarthy’s “Group” had landed on a mystifying Left Bank, exotic and compelling as Durrell’s Alexandria. What they lost was more than their virginity, their bad American accents, and their beloved clichés about “meaning”; what they gained, as they traded notes, clothes, dreams, loves and identities was the gift of geography — the tectonic shift that occurs upon discovering that place, native or adopted, is an integral part of who we are.

Joanna Biggar turned twenty in Paris, where she was a student at the Sorbonne, and went on to earn degrees in Chinese language and French literature. Since then she has chaired a school board in Ghana, traveled solo to remote regions of China, worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., and taught inner-city school students in Oakland, California, where she lives. She is married, has five adult children and six grandchildren, who love books. A member of the Society of Woman Geographers, her special places of the heart remain France and the California coast.